Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Easy Peasy- get the latest posts sent to your inbox

Living & Dying.

People keep dying. Well, of course they do- that's the circle of life (try saying that without singing it in your head a la Lion King). But what I mean is, in my life, people seem to be dying more frequently than usual.

No-one very close to me but close enough that it has made me think carefully about the way I live my own life.

To be fair I have always had a bit of a F$&*K IT! mentality. Part of the reason I'm not rich. You've probably heard the Biblical quote: " Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die."

I water that down to "Eat the cake, drink the Prosecco, laugh like a witch at inappropriate cat memes for tomorrow we may die."

A friend who died recently had the best laugh and the biggest smile you can imagine. She was actually a very serious sort, very academic, very intellectual, very deep thinking. But I saw a glimmer of naughtiness which made me love her on short acquaintance. Even though she was crap at making tea and never ever offered me a piece of cake.

Another woman who recently died was a friend of a friend but through the marvels of Facebook and occasional meetings I felt I knew her. Despite battling cancer she had a strong impressive aim to make every day count. She didn't achieve everything she planned to do before she finally succumbed to the bastard disease but she had a bloody good go at it.

There are others. Some who have lost their lives, others fighting to hold onto it. It makes me feel like hugging those I love close. Life is so......fragile.

So predictable as this post is I am going to come out and say it.

Live your life.

Don't just exist. Don't make 5 year plans. Don't assume you have time.

Let me clarify that. Don't be destructive, selfish, irresponsible. Don't blow the mortgage money on hot pants for your pet squirrel. Don't enjoy your own life to the detriment of others. Don't ignore basic rules of society. Although if you are in fact a serial killer I doubt you will read this and change your lifestyle.

In the words of Muse, "Don't waste time or time will waste you."

Be kind. Be gentle with yourself. Stop using your weight/education/big nose/straight hair/childhood as an excuse to not try stuff.

Mother Theresa apparently said: “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”Indeed. Let us begin, let us start now as we mean to go on. Pass the cake.

Comments

If you've got the cash, buy the shoes. If you're hungry, eat the cake. If you feel the urge, then run naked on the beach. Enjoy what precious time you have. Life is too short to wear matching socks and underwear!

Fantastic words Afra that I live by each day. I used to plan every aspect of my life before I got cancer I'm lucky I beat it but have lost a lot of friends on the way live each day as if it's your last tell people you love them laugh dance in the rain life is too short for regrets

So true, there are so many things I held off on doing and now I can't because of my disabilities. It's kind of the same because even though I'm still here I feel that part of me has died (yes, my legs.) You never know what the future may bring. My favourite author, Terry Pratchett (who died too young just a couple of years ago) said, "people say that when you die your life flashes before your eyes, its called living" Don't let it flash by without achieving what you want. x

Post a Comment

stat counter

blogger chart

Popular Posts

Patients get on average just 10 minutes allocated with their doctor and that is frankly just not enough time to ask detailed questions about your health condition, even if you could organise your thoughts when faced by the white coat.

Most people are too scared to make appointments with healthcare providers simply to find out more about their condition, how to best manage it or find out the latest news and information about it.

You can spend hours and scare yourself stupid randomly browsing the internet and uncover some dubious information from less than authoritative sources, or get sucked in by snake oil salesmen who prey on your fear and lack of expert knowledge to sell you poetess, ineffective, potentially dangerous and usually expensive "cures."

So where do you got for reliable information, the latest health news, articles and conversations with experts and other people with the same conditions you are interested in?

Half term is looming and I am faced with the prospect of a whole week with all of the children at home, almost certainly stuck indoors given the current monsoon conditions in my neck of the woods.

I know, I could pull on wellies and raincoats and go for a nice healthy (damp) yomp round the woods with them. But if you were even thinking of suggesting that you obviously have never met me in real life. I am that woman who doesn't much like walking even on the sunniest of days. The words "a", "Nice" and "walk" should never ever be put together in my opinion.

At a push I might load them into the car and take them to the local museum but on rainy days, especially in school holidays it is always rammed with soggy toddlers and harassed mothers with steamed up glasses and their best Joyce Grenfell voices on. "George. Don't do that." (Go google Joyce Grenfell if you have no clue what I'm talking about!)

My husband gets a distinctly panicked look when he sees me hunting for paint brushes. When I get the urge for a change I have been known to drastically alter colour schemes while he is at work and upcycle furniture in what I call "shabby chic style" and what he calls "painting things white or grey badly."

I first embraced the vintage chic look long before you couldn't move in gift shops for dangling woden and tin hearts and before antique shops realised if they painted old stuff in chalk paint and scattered it amongst the real antiques they would make more money.

My house is filled with now what I consider interesting things mostly in a granny chic style embracing a number of decades. I have a couple of Georgian chairs I love, some Victorian tat, and some 30's 40's and 50's bits and pieces. Complementing all of that I have some modern pieces upcycled in creams, greys and pastels.

I have a confession though. Up until now I have mostly used tester pot…